Method of making wire fencing.



PATENTED MAY 16, 1905.

.T. LITWILLER. METHOD OF MAKING WIRE FENCING.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 20,1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

minw d No. 790,213- I PATENTED MAY 16, 1905.

' IKLITWILLER. I

METHOD OF MAKING WIRE FENCING.

APPLIOATI'ON FILED APR. 20,1904.

2 SHEETS-BHEET 2.

Patented May 16, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS LITWILLER, OF TREMONT, ILLINOIS.

METHOD OF MAKING WIREFENCINGL SPECIFICATION forming; part of LettersPatent No. 790,213, dated May 16, 1905.

' Application filed April 20, 1904:- Serial No. 204,044.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS LITWILLER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Tremont, in the county of Tazewell and State of Illinois,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of MakingWire Fence; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear,and exact description of the invention, which will enable others skilledin the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to an improved method of weaving wire into a fabricor netting, more especially the method of weaving together wires to formwire fencing, this particular description of wire fencing beingdescribedand shown in an application for patent for wire fence filed by meNovember 15, 1902, Serial No. 131,491, renewed on November 9, 1903, andbearing Serial No. 180,396.

The object aimed at by me in the method which I employ is to produceastay-wire fence wherein the stays have a diagonal oroblique bearing tothe longitudinal or continuous strand-wires in the completed fence. Thelongitudinal strand-wires are fed or drawn continuously through acorresponding series of twisting sections which are disposed in adiagonal or obliqueline,succeedingsectionsbeingdisposed slightly inadvance of the precedingsections. Coacting with the twisting sectionsthrough which the longitudinal strands are drawn are a series of movablestay-carrying sections or shuttles from which stay-wires are fed ordrawn, which are intertwisted first with one of the outside longitudinalor selvage strands. The stay-carrying'section or shuttle is then i moveddiagonally or obliquely in the direccontinuously, and the stay-wires arepulling out continuously, and said stays are moved obliquely across andforwardly in the general direction of the movement of the longitudinalWires, producing a fabric wherein the stays bear diagonal to thelongitudinal bearing of the strand-Wires and appearing at an angleopposite to that in which the Wires are fed.

I am aware of machines which aim to produce a continuously-wovenfencing, also of the method in vogue in making stay-fences; but I am notaware of any method by which awire fence is produced continuously inwhich the stays are placed diagonally across the strand-wires with whichthey are intertwisted.

Figure 1 is a plan View of a number of wiretwisting devices and shuttlesassembled in proper relation to produce a continuous woven fencing andshowing the same in course of construction. Fig. 2 shows. enlarged, apartial front elevation of parts seen in Fig. 1 and discloses thefurther mode of operating the machine. Fig. 3 is an'enlarged detail,

in side elevation, of the longitudinal strandwire-feeding sections andthe coacting staycarrying sections or shuttles.

In the practice of my invention there is provided abed-frame consistingof the uprights 1 and 2, which comprise the front and rear portion ofthe bed.- The same are supported in the longitudinally-disposed frames 3at opposite sides or ends of the bed. The uprights ranged parallel toeach other and at suitable distance apart and extend between the frames3 at an angle approximating forty-five degrees, more or less, the angleat which the uprights 1 and 2 are carried being governed solely by theangle at which it is desired to place the stays in the fence whencompleted.

The front and rear portions of the bed 1 and '2 are provided withrunways or guides 1 and 5. The runway or guide 1 is composed of thebase-plate 6 and the overlying head-plate 7, in which is arranged thegroove or slot 8. The runway or guide 5 is composed of the baseplate 9and the overlying head-plate 10, in which is arranged the groove orslot11, simi 1 and 2, which compose the bed-frame, are ar-.

lar in all respects to the slot 8 above. The disposition of the base andhead plates form the runways or guides 4 and 5, as shown. The parts ofthe bed-frame comprising the uprights 1 and 2 are duplicated, so thedescription of one set as above will suffice for both.

12 denotes the front and rear semicircular sections of the strand orlongitudinal wire twisters, of which there is a series, the flat faces13 of which lie uppermost and are journaled, as shown, in the base-plate6 of the bed with their flat faces 13 in a line with the upper face ofthe base-plate 6. The sections 12 are provided with wire-grooves, asindicated at 13, and, as was stated in the fore part of thisspecification, succeeding twisting sections are carried slightly inadvance of its following sections, substantially as seen'in Fig. 1.

There is provided, cooperating with the strand-wire twisters, aplurality of stay-wire carriers, twisters, or shuttles composed of thefront and rear sections 14, having semicircular portions 15corresponding to the forward portions of the sections 12 and having flatfaces 16 adapted to coincide with the flat faces of the sections 12 in amanner and for a purpose to be described. The stay-carriers are furtherprovided with the corresponding extensions 17 which are suitably beveledand to which the opposite ends of astrap or plate 18 is attached (seeFigs. 1 and 3) for connecting the front and rear sections 14 together tomake a common carrier, so that in the movement of one section its matewill be correspondingly moved, and on the strap or plate 18 is suitablycarried a spool (designated as 19) carrying a wire coil from which isfed a stay-wire. The front sections 14 of the stayearrier are providedwith a wire-groove 20, and the stay-wire, which is indicated as B, isfed or drawn from the spool 19 and passed through the groove 20, asshown in Fig. 3, to be intertwisted with the several longitudinal wires(denoted as A.) The wires A are fed or drawn from a suitable supply (notshown) and passed through a shaft or spindle 21, attached to the rearsections 12, and through the groove 13 of the rear section 12 down,along, and beneath the strap or plate 18 and up and out through thegroove 13 of the front section 12 and, coinciding with the stay-sectionsB, are intertwisted therewith during the continued pulling out of suchlongitudinal or strand wires A.

The front and rear sections 14 of the spoolcarriers or stay-shuttles areeach provided with a cap-plate 22, having the vertically-extendedportions 23, which bear at an angle to correspond to the angle at whichthe headplates 7and 10 are carried, while the twisterseetions andshuttles lie parallel with each other and with thelongitudinallydisposed frames 3. The cap-plates are provided withsemicircular faces 24 and form one-half of a l bearing for the sections12 and 14, the other half-section of the bearing being in the baseplate6, and said extended portions 23 are movable in the grooves 8 and 11 ofthe plates 7 and 10 for a purpose to be described and to retain theparts in their correlative positions when the feeding of thestay-sections are coincident with the strand-wires.

The straud-wire-twister sections have fixed positions in the bed frameand are here shown at graduated distances, which is for the purpose ofproducing a fence having graduated meshes. However, the spacing of thestrand-\vire-twister sections may be uniform, if desired. Thestrand-wire-twister sections will be in number to correspond to thenumber of strand-wires or as many as maybe needed for making a fencefabric of a desired width. In this instance the fence is known aseleven-bar fence. Therefore there would be needed eleven sets ofstrand-wire-twister sections; but this is not the case with the staycarriers or shuttles, as to facilitate in the perfect operation of themachine and to produce a fabric continuously I would provide a greatnumber of stay-carrying sections, the object of which will becomeapparent.

In producing the fabric the strand-wires A would be passed through theirtwister-carrying sections in the manner specified and the stay-carryingshuttles would be successively and intermittingly brought coincidentwith each succeedingstay-carrying section th roughout the bed. In otherwords, every shuttle carrying a stay-wire would start in (see Fig. 1) atthe left-hand side of the bed, and its stay would be intertwisted withthe outside selvagewire. During such intertwisting of the stay with theselvage wire the selvage-wire is being continuously drawn forward, whichwill also pull out continuously the stay-wi re. After a sufficientnumber of turns have been made in twisting the wires the stay-carryingshuttle is shifted sidewise diagonally or moved forwardly obliquely tocause said stay-carrying shuttle to coincide with the secondlongitudinal wire and would remain for a predetermined period in such aposition until the stay-wire had been intertwisted with saidlongitudinal wire. After a complete twist was made the saidstay-carrying shuttle would move in the bed in like manner as before andcontinue to be so moved intermittingly for causing the same to coincidewith all of the i TO lower it to the runway 55, and the same would entersaid runway and return across the bed in the manner indicated by thearrows in Fig. 2, in which a stay-carrying shuttle and capplate is inthe act of moving along the runway 5. At the opposite end of the bedsaid stay-carrying-shuttles would enter a vertically-disposed waysimilar to that shown, as at 25, and suitable'mechanism would raise itto the position already previously described, which is preliminary tostarting said staycarrying shuttle along the runway 4 for the purpose ofplacing another stay and causing the same to be intertwisted with eachof these succeeding strand-wires. The reason for a great number ofstay-carrying shuttles will now become evident, for it will beunderstood that they follow each other in succession, so that, asappears in Fig. 1, there will always be a stay-carrying shuttlecoincident with each of the strand-wire-twisting sections, and when oneshuttle is moved all of the shuttles will be moved, and it is immaterialas to the number of shuttles moving along the runway 5; but only aspecified number may be in the runway 4 at any one time.

It will be observed from the angle at which the bed-frame is carried,also thedisposition of the twisters, that by a continuous pullingoutprocess of the strand-wires and the stays, a stay when finished willhave its lower end or starting-point in advance of the end of thecomplete stay or in a line bearing obliquely across the fabric, as shownby the completed stays and those which are forming in On the rear-end ofeach of the spindles or shafts 21 is carried a pinion 26, which mesheswith a bevel-gear 27 carried on the shaft 28. The shaft 28 is adapted tobe actuated through the miter-gears 29 and 30, the former carried by theshaft 28 and the latter carried by a longitudinally-disposed shaft 31,which is adapted to be actuated from some suitable source of power whichhas combined therewith reversing mechanism for the purpose ofintermittingly reversing the rotation of the shafts 31 and 28 or at eachalternate twisting of the stay-wires with the strand. It will be noticedthat adjacent bevel-gears 27 are adapted to rotate in oppositedirections for the purpose of imparting a reverse motion to eachalternate shuttle and strand-wire-twister section, which movement isalso reversed with the reversal of the shafts 81 and 28, the purpose ofwhich is to produce a fabric substantially like that in the applicationabove referred to, in which the stays are intertwisted alternately overand under both across the fabric and longitudinally thereof. It alsoenables the carrying of the strand-wire-twister sections andstay-shuttles, as shown in the drawings, and the disposition of thespools 19, 7 upon which are carried the stays, is such that the shuttlesmay be rotated simultaneously and without interference.

There is no means shown on the machine for gripping the free end of thestays as they are caused to make their initial twist with 7 stood thatwhile I have specified that the spindles 21 rotate in oppositedirections, this need not be carried out unless desirable, and themovements of the twisters may be varied and yet come within the scope ofthe present invention.

In following out the invention attention is called to different forms ofdiagonal stays. One such, as disclosed in the drawings, where thecompleted stay, although fed from shuttles adapted to travel in astraight diagonal line, is directed or bears obliquely across thestrandwires in a curved line, occasioned by the use of a graduated meshfrom top to bottom of the fabric. In the other form (not shown on thedrawings, but referred to) a uniform mesh throughout would be producedby passing the stay 7 carrying shuttles across the strand-wires in themanner shown, but move each shuttle after a stay had been'drawn from theshuttle a length corresponding to the width, height, or space betweenthe strandwires, when the diagonal bearing of the stays would be in astraight line rather than curved, as shown in the figures. It isunderstood that although the shuttles move intermittingly across the bedthe stay-wires, like the strands, are drawn or pulled out continuously.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is 1. The methodof making wire fence consisting of the following steps: continuouslyfeeding a series of strand-wires; feeding continuously staywiresdiagonally across the path of the strands and intertwisting the saidstays with each succeeding strand-wire, forming stays bearing diagonallyacross the strands from selvage to selvage, substantially as specified.

2. The method of making wire fence consisting of the following steps:continuously feeding a series of strand-wires; feeding continuouslystaywires diagonally across the path of the strands and intertwistingthe said stays with each succeeding strand-wire, form- IIO ing stayswith arcs between their ends beara ing diagonally from selvage toselvage, sub- In testimony whereof I alfix my signature in presence oftwo Witnesses.

THOMAS LITWILLER.

Witnesses:

CHAS. W. LA FORTE, ROBERT J. MCCORMICK.

